Smith v. Morse

• Court: Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts
• Writing for the Court: DOLAN
• Citation: Smith v. Morse, 315 Mass. 305, 52 N.E.2d 416 (Mass. 1943)
• Decision Date: 28 December 1943
• Parties: SMITH v. MORSE.

315 Mass. 305

52 N.E.2d 416

SMITH

v.MORSE.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Hampden.

Dec. 28, 1943.

Exceptions from Superior Court, Hampden County; D. F. Dillon, Judge.

Action of tort by Peggy Smith against Georgiana Morse for personal injuries. Verdict for plaintiff. On defendant's exceptions.

Exceptions sustained and judgment for defendant.

Before FIELD, C. J., and DONAHUE, DOLAN, and RONAN, JJ.

No appearance for plaintiff.

J. S. Kane, of Springfield, for defendant.

DOLAN, Justice.

This is an action of tort to recover compensation for personal injuries alleged to have been sustained by reason of negligence on the part of the defendant. The case was tried to a jury, and at the close of the evidence the defendant moved for a directed verdict in her favor. The motion was denied and the defendant excepted. The jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff. The defendant filed a motion for a new trial, which the judge denied, and the defendant excepted to its denial.

The evidence in its aspect most favorable to the plaintiff discloses the following facts: On June 24, 1939, the plaintiff ‘was a roomer in the rooming house * * * owned and controled by the defendant.’ The plaintiff had lived on the first floor of the premises for more than a year previous to the date just mentioned. The hallway on that floor was about seven or eight feet wide, and its floor was covered with a strip of cork or rubber matting ‘about one-half inch thick which was cemented to the wooden floor * * * there was a stairway containing five or six steps leading from the hallway down to the street level, where a glass door opened into the street.’ The ‘matting stopped at the edge of the top stair.’ At that place it was ‘chewed like, clear off. It was slit, raggedy all around there. * * * The worn place was about six inches by six inches.’ ‘The light was back in the hall and it was sort of dark there by the steps.’ About eighty-five roomers used the hallway in question every day. On the morning of June 24, 1939, as the plaintiff started to descend the stairway leading to the street, she caught her toe ‘in the worn area’ and fell down the stairway, sustaining the injuries complained of. She did not see the worn part of the matting before she fell and had never noticed it before, although she had lived in the premises for over a year prior to the accident and had walked back and forth over the stairway and the hallway, including the area where she fell, several times every day during that period. The ‘matting had been there several years prior to the plaintiff's injury.’ There was evidence that a strip of the matting ‘extending its entire width leading from the edge of the top stair inward about eighteen inches, and which covered the upper part of the staircase which was constructed of stone, was removed by the defendant's agent about three weeks before the trial.’

The general rule relative to the liability of a landlord to a tenant for defects in a common passageway is well settled. ‘The landlord owes a duty, not to keep the common passageway in as good a condition as...